Quote:
Originally Posted by Headracer
Just to throw a bit of personal experience into this one... A few years ago Skip Barber Racing had a deal with dodge so that we had dodge engines in all the formula cars and used SRT-4s for our pace/ride around cars. Needless to say, we spent a fair amount of time beating on those SRT-4s. Since then the Dodge contract has expired and we now use Mazdas instead (still have the dodge engines in the back of the racers though). Around a road course the MS3 just feels so much more "put together" than the SRT-4 did. To me it feels like they use stiffer bushings in the Mazda. The Mazda's track width is also significantly wider than the SRT-4's (60.4" vs. 57.6" front and 60.0" vs. 57.7" rear), which ends up meaning that the Mazda doesn't feel like it rolls quite so much into the corners. Both are great cars for the money, but the Mazda just feels that touch bit more like it wants to handle instead of fighting you through the corner. Don't know if its actually that much quicker, but its more fun to drive in my opinion.
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It should be expected that the Mazda MS3 should feel better on the track, as it's cost is much much higher than an srt4. You talking about a 19,000 budget racer vs. a 25,000 pocket rocket. That 6,000 difference means alot in the quality of parts used. Plus, the dodge was not originally designed to go to a road course, it was purpose built.......beat up on the imports on the drag strip/street racing scene, whereas the mazda, being of higher quality and more cost is an overall more well rounded car, but at a cost.